4 Tips to Help You Meditate Every Day

Starting a practice that benefits your well-being, and sticking with it over time, doesn’t have to be a struggle. Here are a few evidencebased tips for integrating meditation into your life.

1

Try meditating in a group, either in-person or virtually

When it comes to health behaviors, research consistently shows that social support and watching other people do what we want to do helps us integrate it into our own lives. Although it’s tempting to practice in isolation using the variety of smartphone applications and readily available online resources on meditation (and doing so can be very helpful), the energy of a group can be sustaining. Look for meditation groups at local meditation or counseling centers, or start your own.

2

Each time you practice, pause and remind yourself why you’re meditating

Is it to live life more fully, be less emotionally reactive, or offer more compassion to others? Research indicates that our behavioral intentions partially drive our actions. If we forget why we intended to do something, it’s easier to start feeling like the behavior is meaningless, and to be thrown off course. Let your deepest intentions guide you.

3

Reflect on the science-backed benefits of meditation

When we believe that a behavior will benefit us, we’re more likely to do it. Research suggests that meditation can increase positive emotions, reduce anxiety, lessen unconscious bias, and even (literally) help us sleep better at night. The benefits may even extend beyond ourselves to our interpersonal relationships and communities, through helping us be more forgiving and compassionate toward others.

4

Nurture positive emotions

Findings from a recent study suggest that people who tend to experience more positive feelings in daily life are more likely to start and keep up a meditation practice. Another study reported that new meditators who experienced more positive emotions during their first few meditation sessions were more likely to continue the practice over time. When you meditate, try to notice any positive feelings, sense of meaning, or other benefits that emerge during and following your sessions. More generally, try to schedule pleasant activities during your day, and intentionally notice positive feelings that may arise. Consider trying this savoring practice to boost your tendency to experience positive feelings in daily life.

class or program designed to support well-being, such as the sense of belonging we get through interacting with fellow participants and teachers.

The Perks of Daily Practice

The method of totaling the time people spend meditating, and seeing if that predicts improved well-being over weeks or months, doesn’t necessarily show us the more nuanced, day-today picture. Will we tend to feel better on days when we meditate, versus on days when we don’t?

A new study sheds light on this issue, suggesting that daily practice is necessary to benefit, at least among new meditators. Researchers asked 82 adults participating in a 21-day mindfulness meditation course to report how often and for how long they practiced meditation each day. Participants also rated various thoughts and feelings expected to be improved by meditation, like mindful awareness and positive emotions, multiple times per day via their smartphones.

This approach, termed intensive experience sampling, is innovative in that it allows researchers to understand people’s behaviors and experiences as they unfold in their real lives, as opposed to asking people to remember what they felt and did over a period of weeks (our memory often fails us here).

The researchers found that people experienced more positive emotions and mindful awareness during the hours following meditation practice sessions. What’s more, longer sessions produced even better same-day outcomes. This suggests that daily practice matters. Interestingly, they also observed that meditation practice effects did not accumulate over the 21-day period, or carry over to the next day. Taken together, these results indicate that new meditators may need to practice every day in order to benefit, and may reap even greater same-day benefits the longer they practice.

Be kind to yourself if you stray from your meditation goals. Although researchers are actively seeking to better understand how to help people make meditation a habit, one thing is sure: Criticizing ourselves after we fail to behave in ways we’d like actually undermines our ability to change. Appreciate the time you have devoted to your practice, as well as your desire to increase your and others’ well-being through meditation. If you find yourself particularly caught in selfjudgment, consider practicing some self-compassion. Above all, recognize that each moment presents an opportunity to start again. ●

Mindfulness might sometimes feel like just another fad, destined to pass, like oxygen bars and Kardashians. But, Elaine Smookler writes, it takes grit and an ongoing intention toward wellbeing to keep mindfulness from becoming just another failure to make us thinner or less irritable. Instead, it offers a practical way to be awake to the dazzling experience of being alive.